Melanie Gillman

Melanie Gillman is an American queer non-binary cartoonist, illustrator, and lecturer, specializing in LGBTQ comics for Young Adult readers, including the webcomic As the Crow Flies.[1][2] Their comics have been published by Boom! Studios,[3] Iron Circus Comics, Lion Forge Comics, Slate,[4] VICE,[5] Prism Comics, Northwest Press, and The Nib.[6]

Melanie Gillman
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Cartoonist
Notable works
As the Crow Flies
AwardsSociety of Illustrators gold medal
www.melaniegillman.com

Education

Gillman received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Master of Fine Arts from the Center for Cartoon Studies.[7]

Career

Teaching

Gillman began teaching Professional Practices at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in 2015, and was later appointed Senior Lecturer in Comics.[8] They teach courses at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and the Art Students' League of Denver and have been a writing fellow with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship program since 2017.[9]

Publications

Gillman's first graphic novel Smbitten – about lesbians, swing-dancing, fancy hats, and vampires – was produced as part of their Masters thesis at the Center for Cartoon Studies.[10]

In 2012 they began As the Crow Flies,[11] a webcomic about a 13-year-old African American queer girl who finds herself at an all-white Christian backpacking camp. The first volume of As the Crow Flies was funded through Kickstarter.[12] The Amelia Bloomer Project named it as one of their 2019 top 10 books for readers from birth to age 18.[13] As the Crow Flies received the Stonewall Book Award Honor in 2018,[14] was also nominated for the "Best Digital/Webcomic" Eisner Award in 2014[15] and the "Outstanding Comic" Ignatz Award in 2016.[16] The Society of Illustrators awarded Gillman a gold medal for it.[17]

Gillman was co-editor with Kori Michele Handwerker and a contributor to The Other Side,[18] an anthology of 19 queer paranormal romance comics published in 2016. In 2016, they began writing an ongoing Steven Universe comics series for Boom! Studios.[3]

Under Lerner Publishing Group, Gillman published Stage Dreams in 2019.[19] The story centers around a female Latinx outlaw and a runaway trans woman in New Mexico during the Civil War.[20] Citing their interest in historical fiction and the lack of queer representation in such stories, Gillman aimed to create a story which depicted queer history prior to the Civil Rights movement.[19]

In 2019, Gillman received the opportunity to create a compilation of queer fairy tales from Random House Graphic after the success of a series of queer fairy-tale comics Gillman published online garnered widespread popularity. [21] The opportunity led to the publication of Other Ever Afters in 2022. [22] Gillman noted following a Western European fairytale format of storytelling to reinterpret old stories in a more modern point of view. [23] Gillman's intent behind the stories of Other Ever Afters was to provoke readers into thinking about how women and girls are treated within traditional tales and stories. [23]

Personal life

Gillman lives in Columbus, Ohio. Gillman is non-binary and uses the gender-neutral pronouns they and their.[22]

Bibliography

Books

As the Crow Flies (2017)

Care Bears Volume 1: Rainbow River Rescue (2016)

The Other Side: An Anthology of Queer Paranormal Romance (2016)

Steven Universe #1 (2017)

Steven Universe #2 (2017)

Steven Universe #3 (2017)

Steven Universe #4 (2017)

Steven Universe #8 (2017)

Steven Universe: Warp Tour (2017)

Steven Universe: Punching Up (2018)

Stage Dreams (2019)

Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales (2022)

References
  1. "Drawn to Comics: As The Crow Flies Helps You Relive Your Awkward Camp Memories". Autostraddle. 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  2. "The Empowered (Not Defeated) Queeroes of Melanie Gillman". Out Front Magazine. September 7, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  3. "Boom Launches 'Steven Universe' Ongoing By Gilman and Farina". Comics Alliance. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  4. Sturm, James (2013-10-22). "Radiant". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  5. "The Best Walk - VICE". Vice. 7 July 2013. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  6. Gillman, Melanie. "Witch Camp". The Nib. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  7. "Melanie Gillman". California College of the Arts. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
  8. "Melanie Gillman | California College of the Arts". www.cca.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  9. "Tulsa Artist Fellowship announces 2017 Cohort". The Edmond Sun. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  10. "Smbitten". Gumroad. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  11. "Growing Up Queer: Should You Be Reading 'As the Crow Flies'?". Comics Alliance. Archived from the original on 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  12. "As the Crow Flies: Volume One!". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  13. Yorio, Kara (March 2019). "Amelia Bloomer Project's Top 10 of 2019". School Library Journal. 65: 20 – via EBSCOhost.
  14. admin (2009-09-09). "Stonewall Book Awards List". Round Tables. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
  15. "2014 Eisner Award Nominees Announced". Comic Vine. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  16. Cavna, Michael; Cavna, Michael (2016-09-18). "Small Press Expo: Here are your 2016 Ignatz Award winners, including new talent Tillie Walden". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  17. "Comic and Cartoon Art Annual Short Form and Digital Media | Society of Illustrators". www.societyillustrators.org. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  18. "About". othersideanthology.com. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  19. Figa, Alenka (2016-12-01). "Melanie Gillman's Stage Dreams: A Story of Queer Romance and Espionage!". WWAC. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  20. Stage Dreams.
  21. Knight, Rosie (2022-10-04). "Other Ever Afters makes fairy tales subversive, kinder, and a whole lot queerer". Polygon. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  22. "As the Crow Flies - About". www.melaniegillman.com. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  23. Lauer, Emily (2022-09-20). "INTERVIEW: Melanie Gillman Chats About Craving Queer Community in Other Ever Afters". WWAC. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
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